Maternal and Child Oral Health Status in Two Cambodian Provinces

Objectives: To explore the relationship between mothers/primary caregivers (M/C) oral health and preschool child oral healthin rural Cambodia. Methods: Consent was gained from a convenience sample of 176 M/C from Kampong Speu and Preveng Provinces. Interviews were conducted followed by an oral examination of M/C and their preschool children. The caries experience and severity of participants was measured and univariate and bivariate analyses using the SPSS software package carried out to identify statistically significant relationships between M/C and child oral health using the chi squared and Mann-Whitney U-Test as appropriate. Results: 176 M/C (mean age 37.4+12.0) and 172 children (mean age 43.2 +20.5  months) participated in the survey. The prevalence of caries, pulpally involved teeth, and DMFT> 9 for M/C were (84.1%, 87.0%, 46.0%). The prevalence of caries, pulpally involved teeth and Severe Early Childhood Caries (SECC) for children were (73.3%, 34.5%, 73.3%). The mean DMFT, PUFA score (pulpally involved, ulceration, fistula, abscess), and PUFA ratio (PUFA/DMFT) for M/C were (8.8+ 6.5, 3.0+ 3.5, 0.3+ 0.3).  The mean dmft, pufa score, and pufa ratio (pufa/dmft) for children were (6.8+5.9, 1.2+2.3, 0.1+0.2). The prevalence of caries, pulpally involved teeth, SECC, mean dmft, and pufa ratio for children of M/C with DMFT>9 (84.1%, 87.0%, 46.0%, 8.5+ 5.9, 0.2+0.2) were significantly (P<0.05; χ2 or Mann-Whitney test) higher than measures for those children whose parents had DMFT<9 (66.4%, 66.7%, 28.3%, 5.8+5.7, 0.1+0.2). The mean dmft for children of M/C with pulpally involved teeth was significantly (p<0.05; Mann-Whitney) higher than that of children of M/C without pulpally involved teeth (7.3+6.0 versus 4.7+5.1). Conclusions: The M/C and preschool child participants in this study both had a high prevalence and high severity of caries. This study demonstrated a significant relationship between maternal caries experience and child caries experience.